Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Death is not the only thing that coronavirus can do to you.

You can spend weeks or months in therapy before you are recovered, or you can get scarring in your lungs - or worse - that leaves you with a permanent disability. Not to mention damage to other organs.

I think many are discounting, or are unaware of, these other nasty possibilities. We don’t know enough yet of the prevalence of these effects, but we do know they happen.




> You can spend weeks or months in therapy before you are recovered, or you can get scarring in your lungs - or worse - that leaves you with a permanent disability. Not to mention damage to other organs.

Given that we've only been tracking the virus closely for 2 months, and we've only had a decent sample size of patients for only about 1 month, you really can't be making claims like this at this point.


I'm not making these claims. A senior doctor in Western Europe is making these claims[1].

> Fatality is the wrong yardstick. Catching the virus can mess up your life in many, many more ways than just straight-up killing you. "We are all young"—okay. "Even if we get the bug, we will survive"—fantastic. How about needing four months of physical therapy before you even feel human again. Or getting scar tissue in your lungs and having your activity level restricted for the rest of your life.

[1]: https://www.newsweek.com/young-unafraid-coronavirus-pandemic...


Some survivors of SARS had significant long-term health complications. It remains to be seen if this will be the same.


AFAIK besides spending weeks in therapy, other possibilities are not confirmed for COVID-19.





Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: